The Atmosphere
This trace component of the atmosphere varies in amount but is responsible for major changes in weather conditions.
What is water vapor?
This type of energy from the Sun warms Earth’s surface and starts the heating of the atmosphere.
What is radiation?
This term describes a body of air in motion and is usually expressed using speed and direction in units like miles per hour or knots.
What is wind?
This term describes the amount of water vapor in the air and can be expressed as relative when compared to the air’s full capacity.
What is humidity?
A very large body of air with uniform temperature and moisture, often over 1,000 miles across, is called this.
What is an air mass?
This boundary marks the transition from the weather-filled troposphere to the more stable stratosphere.
What is the tropopause?
Because warm air is less dense, airplane engines perform better in this type of air.
What is cold air?
Equal to 1.15 miles per hour, this nautical unit is used in the U.S. to measure wind speed, and represents one nautical mile per hour.
What is a knot?
Condensation begins when air cools to this temperature, the point at which the air becomes fully saturated with water vapor.
What is the dew point?
This type of front forms when warm air moves into colder air, rises above it, and often brings widespread clouds and steady precipitation.
What is a warm front?
Temperatures in this atmospheric layer first rise above the stratosphere but then decrease again as altitude approaches 50 miles.
What is the mesosphere?
This phenomenon explains why global wind belts curve instead of flowing in straight lines, even though the air itself isn’t changing direction on purpose.
What is the Coriolis Effect?
This type of wind helps aircraft reduce flying time and save fuel by blowing in the same direction the plane is traveling.
What is a tailwind?
This type of precipitation forms when liquid droplets fall from the cloud but freeze only when they hit a surface, creating dangerous icing conditions for runways, highways, and aircraft.
What is freezing rain?
This type of front forms when cold air pushes into warmer air, forcing the warm air upward and producing quick, intense weather such as thunderstorms and sharp temperature drops.
What is a cold front?
This atmospheric region, extending roughly from 25 to 259 miles, is defined by electrons being gained or lost due to solar radiation.
What is the ionosphere?
This calm region near the equator forms where trade winds from both hemispheres meet and rise, leaving little horizontal surface wind.
What are the doldrums?
This scale, ranging from 0 to 12, categorizes wind speed along with associated seaman’s terms and effects on both sea and land.
What is the Beaufort Scale?
What are cirrus clouds?
They are high, wispy clouds, made mostly of ice crystals, often signal that a warm front or a change in the weather is approaching.
This scale, ranging from F0 to F5, is used to classify tornadoes based on wind speed and expected damage, with the strongest storms exceeding 300 knots.
What is the Fujita Scale?
Although technically the fourth layer covered in your book, this layer extends from 50 to about 300 miles and experiences extreme temperature differences due to solar activity.
What is the thermosphere?
This feature of the upper atmosphere forms only when strong horizontal temperature gradients exist, producing narrow bands of 100–300 mph winds that pilots exploit for faster travel.
What is the jetstream?
Because warm air near your body is swept away by air movement, this meteorological effect can make 30°F feel like 9°F, combining cold temperatures with strong winds.
What is wind chill?
This special cloud type, officially known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, forms over mountains in stable, moist air and signals aviation hazards due to strong turbulence created by standing waves.
What are lenticular clouds?
The calm center of a hurricane, surrounded by violent storms, is measured along with wind speed, central pressure, and storm surge on this scale.
BONUS: Hurricanes develop in stages, beginning as a tropical disturbance, then a tropical depression, and later a tropical storm. A hurricane officially forms when sustained winds reach this minimum speed.
What is the eye of the hurricane?
BONUS: What is 74 miles per hour?